“Sociality in the age of the echo chamber?-Generative AI and changing family dynamics in South Korea, RUC Centre for social sustainability

Beskrivelse

In the past decade, anthropological, feminist and STS theories of the “more than human” or “multi-species anthropology” (Krøijer & Weisdorf 2021) have influenced our way of understanding the social. From these perspectives, the social and social relations emerge in interaction with both other species and forms of materiality and should be included on an equal footing
with humans in our analyses (Haraway 1985/2010, Tsing 2015, Latour 2005).
But what does the social become when it is seemingly played out between socially isolated elderly people and generative AI in the form of a robot? And what can narratives about South Korean society's technological “handling” of social isolation and loneliness among the elderly tell us about notions, values and norms of what is considered a worthwhile (elderly) life? With this presentation I would like to spark discussions of these themes based on fieldwork among older adults identified as socially isolated and lonely, and that have therefore been given the small social robot, “Hyodol”.

Periode	18 mar. 2026
Sted for afholdelse	Roskilde Universitet, Danmark